This paper examines existential sentences in Arabic-English translation. First, the author briefly discusses the main types of existential constructions in the two languages, and then investigates these constructions in an Arabic text and its English translation. The author also attempts to find out how existentials are equated across the two languages and what similarities and differences are involved in the translation process. The data are based on a corpus comprising 552 pages of an Arabic novel, Awlaadu Haarratina by Najib Mahfuz (Beirut, 5th edition, 1986) and its English translation by Philip Stewart (London, Heinemann, 1981).